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Canadian And U.S. Authorities Postpone Collective Policing Project

It's been known for some time that there could be the possibility that U.S. border guards could soon be posted to various locations within Canada, like Toronto's Union Station and other places. Believed by some to be an effort that would help to move Canada further toward establishing a sort of North American union, improving the policing between the two nations would be a seemingly necessary step toward establishing this union. But the cross-border initiative which would seek to have agents authorized who would travel on either side, looks like it will be placed on the back burner for now, over unresolved issues.

It was announced this week that the Canada-U.S. initiative which was seeking to have the two nations collectively move toward establishing a method of effective law-enforcement between the their jurisdictions, has been postponed for now. It is claimed that there are unresolved concerns about how the police officers would treat those who are accused of breaking the law. We know that there were also previous claims that U.S. agents wanted to be exempt from Canadian law even though they might be acting within our boundaries and jurisdiction.

Two projects were already supposed to be well under way, but one major hold-up with the project has been trying to figure out which legal system would apply if an officer was accused of breaking the law. According to an RCMP briefing note that was obtained under the Access to Information Act, Mounties are encouraged to promote the position that both United States and Canadian officers should be treated both the same, “under a common criminal liability regime.” The effort between the two nations, the Beyond the Border initiative, consisted of a number of projects that sought to improve the transfer of goods and passengers between the two locations.